Some of my friends’ gardens are at their flowering peak. There are columbine, roses, poppies, clematis, wild geranium, Siberian iris and the beautiful large purple and yellow domestic iris. It’s a garden of Eden, which reminds me of a line from the Unitarian Hymnal:
“Show to us again the garden where all life flows fresh and free. Gently guide your sons and daughters into full maturity. Teach us how to trust each other, how to use for good our power, how to touch the earth with reverence. Then once more will Eden flower.”
We went on a yoga hike looking for the Lady Slipper Orchid on Saturday, and were a little late, but a friend sent me the above picture with a beautiful group of orchids. You just want to stop and smell the roses, take a breath and be in joy with creation’s blooming.
Such Jubilation! How profound and also amazing as the Presbytery of Utica has become a funding partner with the Center for Jubilee Practice. Check out the website here. https://jubileepractice.org
The center is a new 501c3 that will be working to help Christian Churches becomes more open and affirming, more loving and caring, more other centered than self centered. In other words, it will help churches and other interested groups bloom into the people we are called to be. Here are the first two paragraphs from the Rome Sentinel that describe the center:
“The Rev. Ashley DeTar Birt and Elder Rick Ufford-Chase have founded The Center for Jubilee Practice in partnership with the Presbytery of Utica and Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary.
“The mission of the Center for Jubilee Practice is to encourage Christian churches in the United States to develop concrete practices of reparations, watershed discipleship, full LGBTQIA+ inclusion, and respectful multi-faith partnership. Such practices of reparations have the potential to address and make amends for historic harm the church has caused or supported — intentionally or unintentionally — with Native Americans, African-Americans, among those who identify as LGBTQIA+, and in protection of the land itself in this unprecedented time of climate crisis.”
As June continues to bloom, here is a prayer for us all:
May we respect the sanctity of each flower
May we watch and learn from the smallest plants what it is to have life
May we dance in the breezes of summer
May we gaze in stillness at the gifts that surround us,
May we realize our own beauty and worth,
And may we live in harmony and balance with all our relations.